Call it the hotel formerly known as Prince.
The city will auction off notorious Bay Ridge flophouse the Prince Hotel to recoup the hundreds of thousands of dollars in fines that its owner owes for unsafe building conditions. Neighbors have long complained that the Prince is a den of vice, and its toppling marks the end of a reign that few will miss, a local pol said.
“The Prince has been an albatross around the neck of the area’s quality of life for far too long, so nobody will be sorry to see it go,” Councilman Vincent Gentile (D–Bay Ridge) said.
Mayor DeBlasio put together a task force to investigate the hotel last year after locals panned his plan to build a pre-kindergarten a few doors down.
But the Prince persisted, and DeBlasio apologized to Bay Ridgites at a February town hall that he hadn’t taken swifter action — and promised he would fix up the fleatrap.
The next day, Department of Finance sheriffs raided the hotel, seized all the cash on hand, and posted an officer there to collect future revenue toward owner Moses Fried’s $400,000 debt to the city.
The city took Fried to court and a Brooklyn Supreme Court judge issued an order allowing the city to take and sell the four-story hotel on 93rd Street near Third Avenue.
Bid on the Prince Hotel at the King’s County Sheriff’s Office (210 Joralemon St., Room 909, Downtown). June 8 at 1 pm. Cash only.
